Broomfield biz puts books in hands of kids

PASSING ON PAGES: Unalibri co-founders Tinna Petursson, at left, and Kim Clemensen hold some of the books that will be donated to kids. (JEREMY PAPASSO / Daily Camera)

How far can one book take a child?

In the experience of literacy advocates Kim Clemensen and Tinna Petursson, one book can make a big difference, particularly in the lives of low-income students.

Clemensen and Petursson are the co-founders of Unalibri, a new Broomfield-based company that aims to help elementary school children in low-income schools fall in love -- and stay in love -- with reading.

Promoting literacy for elementary school children isn't a new concept, but Clemensen and Petursson said they hope to foster a life-long love of reading by connecting kids with the types of stories that keep them asking librarians, parents and friends for more book recommendations.

"We really want to connect with these kids and see what they're interested in," Clemensen said. "There has to be a personal connection."

Unalibiri sells reading-releated t-shirts, bags and other apparel. For every purchase, Unalibri donates one new book to a child in need.

The company's original aim was to use the funds to donate one large delivery of books to each low-income school. Yet the company soon decided that simply dropping off books wouldn't help children enjoy or care about reading.

"We can't just hand a book to kids. There has to be a process where they select it," Petursson said.

At the first school Unalibiri connected with, Cole Arts and Science Academy in Denver, they found it was most important to just ask kids what they were interested in reading.

By having one-on-one conversations with about 540 children, Unalibri was able to connect each kid with a book tailored to their interests and reading level.

"If you can talk to a kid, you can get on their level," Clemensen said.

Petursson said their experiences at Cole were inspirational. Some children proudly wrote their names in their new books, while others said they wanted to select books to read to their younger siblings. Several families decided to wrap the new books up and place them under the Christmas tree.

PASSING ON PAGES: Unalibri co-founders Tinna Petursson, at left, and Kim Clemensen hold some of the books that will be donated to kids. (Jeremy Papasso / Daily Camera)

Popular choices included the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, Sesame Street books, Junie B. Jones books and books about science topics.

"After they got their books, it was so cool to see them sitting down, looking through the book they got," Clemensen said.

Unalibri just launched over the summer, and Petursson said there's still plenty of work to do. In addition to designing and selling shirts, bags and other reading-related items, the organization is trying to decide on the next school that will receive donated books.

Petursson, who previously worked for an organization that shipped books to poor communities overseas, said she turned her focus to Colorado-area children after reading startling statistics about the ways low reading skills can impact a child's future education, job prospects and quality of life, she said.

The problem isn't that parents don't want their children to read, she said. In some low-income areas, parents are often stretched between multiple jobs, financial or health problems and other daily life challenges that make it hard to make room for story time.

"Parents are often worried about much bigger things than books," Clemensen said.

Unalibri plans to meet with each school's principals, librarians and other officials in order to get a feel for each school community's needs. At Cole, for example, where the students wear uniforms, the students can earn and wear Unalibri shirts by reading a certain number of books.

"Each school needs something different, and we want to work with that," Petursson said.

For more information on Unalibri, or to nominate a school to benefit from a book donation, visit www.unalibri.com

Boulder is pretty good at producing rock bands, and by "rock," we mean the in-your-face, guitar-heavy, leather-clad variety — you know, the good kind. For a prime example, look no farther than BANDITS. Full Story